The Future of Art: VR Animation

40,000 years ago the first cave paintings were made by our ancestors.  Over the years, not only have humans have grown and evolved, but so has our art.  With every advancement of technology new art forms and new inspirations are created.  People keep pushing the limits of what is and what isn't art.  Some people can see a story in a couple shapes on a piece of paper while others see only what their eyes tell them.  The great thing about art is that is subjective.  Technology however is objective.  It works a certain way.  It's programmed to do only a set amount of instructions per second, internally crunching ones and zeros to perform its duty.  Yet humans have found a way to make art through technology.

With the advancement of virtual reality, animators can now step into a virtual world and draw their creations in 3D.  Below is a video of Glenn Keane who animated for Disney movies (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast). 

Glenn has been in the animation business for over 40 years and embraces new technologies and how they can help his craft.  With this new technology people can really actually step into their art and see the soul of their creation in a new way.  This dynamic storytelling could be the future of animation.

As our technology gets more advanced there will always be ethical issues that need to be addressed.  Virtual Reality is going to change everything as we know it.  What the world will be like once VR becomes easily accessible to the general public is a hard think about.  However, its also hard not to see some of the positives of venturing into the virtual world.  I can see this type of technology being prescribed to people who are depressed or have PTSD as a way to relax and express themselves.

There's still a lot for VR to overcome before people will welcome it as a daily essential but this is definitely a step in the right direction.

Ian Klein